Under Pressure Honda Signs JV With Sony To Sell EVs By 2025

Japanese Consumer durable, Sony has signed an agreement with automobile major Honda Motor on June 16 to equally own a joint venture that will start selling electric cars in 2025. Both the companies will invest 5 billion yen ($37.52 million) each in the JV, first announced in March this year and named Sony Honda Mobility.

Yasuhide Mizuno, a senior Honda executive, will serve as the JV’s chairman and CEO. Izumi Kawanishi, an executive vice president at Sony, will be the president and another Chief Operating Officer. While Honda will bring its expertise in building and selling cars, Sony will add its software and technology chops, the companies said in a statement on June 16.

Under pressure from the customers and the investors alike, Automobile major Honda seems to have woken up to the electric vehicles. Although the car makers across the world are fast switching over to the EVs in an attempt of energy transition without holding the purse strings, yet Honda, just like bigger rival Toyota Motor, has not been able to make much of headway. At present, Honda only offers one EV, Honda e.

Facing the brunt of the investors pressure to make cars that are carbon-free and equipped with newer technology such as self-driving features, Honda has released a statement reading, “it plans to roll out 30 EV models and make some 2 million EVs annually by 2030.”

Surging costs of raw materials coupled with a global chip crunch hurts, Honda is squeezing out the market for the margin. Earlier this year, the company said it would develop a series of lower-priced EVs with General Motors, based on a new joint platform, expanding on plans for GM to begin building two electric SUVs for Honda in 2024.

Sony’s interest is no surprise considering the high electronic component in electric cars. With even the dashboard turning into a large display system effectively, an electric car today is as much about the electronics as it is about the mechanics of transport.